He's Not Dangerous
by Raberba girl
Summary: Toothless has to convince a flock of Night Furies not to kill Hiccup on sight. Spoilers for HTTYD2.
1. He's Not Dangerous

He's Not Dangerous

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Toothless has to convince a flock of Night Furies not to kill Hiccup on sight.

A/N: Agh, I don't even know how to post my HTTYD fanfiction anymore... AO3's series function makes things much easier, and dA only lets me post each installment separately anyway, but my HTTYD fics on FFN are already turning into a mess. *facepalm* And I'm so far behind on updating my fanfiction indexes that _none_ of my HTTYD fics are listed yet. DX

Ftr, this fic is, at least at the moment, just a random one-shot standalone not related to any of my other headcanons/universes.

**Takes place shortly after HTTYD2.**

o.o.o

Hiccup finally closed his notebook and tucked it away, glancing around for Toothless. "Hey, bud, you ready to go?"

Nothing responded except the quiet, distant sounds of the forest.

The young Viking frowned. "Toothless?" He got to his feet and began wandering through the trees. "Toothless~ Where are you~?" He had absently sensed the dragon doing his own investigating while Hiccup had been busy, but he hadn't realized that they'd actually gotten separated. "Hey, Toothless, I mean it, where are you?"

Hiccup emerged from the woods and found himself on a high outcrop. He broke into a relieved smile when he saw a familiar winged black creature on the ground below. "_There_ you are... Come on, Toothless, let's go!" Hiccup made his way down the hill, sometimes picking his way carefully and other times sliding to make progress. He had just half-rolled to level ground and was still in the process of climbing to his feet when a Night Fury leaped in front of him - and _roared_.

"Tooth-" Hiccup lost his balance and fell back to the ground, gaping up at the black dragon in shock. It was _enormous_.

Well, actually, not compared to other dragons Hiccup had seen; it wasn't much bigger than Hookfang. But when Hiccup was expecting to see a dragon whose length from the neck to the base of the tail was about his own height, the unexpected Night Fury seemed huge in comparison.

"You're not Toothless," Hiccup realized, shock turning his voice into a mere thread of sound.

The dragon flattened itself close to the ground, its wings spread wide. With its eyes narrowed to angry slits, it stalked forward, and Hiccup scrambled back. He started struggling to get to his feet again, but the dragon startled him with a displeased snarl. Hiccup's back hit the side of the outcrop, and he plopped back down. "Hey..."

The dragon reared up.

"H-Hey-" A chill went down his spine when the signature sound of a Night Fury's fire began to whistle shrilly. Hiccup stared at the open, glowing mouth in horror and sadness. "No- No, please don't, I...please, don't..."

Plasma exploded. Hiccup instinctively dove into a tight ball, arms wrapped around his own head, not that that would do him any good. But for some reason he wasn't dead...and the dragon roars deafening him sounded like they were coming from _two_ animals. The black winged shape looming over him was crouched in a protective stance, glowing a fierce blue in some places; then a red tail fin whipped around and nearly hit Hiccup in the nose, and he gasped in relief when he realized that, once again, his best friend had saved his life.

Toothless let out another outraged roar at the wild Night Fury, and spread his wings farther until the Viking was almost completely hidden from sight.

Hiccup, fascinated despite himself, couldn't help crouching to peer under the edge of Toothless's wing, in awe at the sight of the hostile dragon. "There's another one...there's _another one_...!"

The wild Night Fury raised its head and bellowed to the sky. Toothless whipped around and began frantically nudging at Hiccup, hard enough to force him to his feet.

"Toothless, what-?"

At the exact moment when he realized that his dragon wanted him to mount up so they could take off, the ground shook. Night Furies were dropping out of the sky, two, three- _four_ of them.

All of them were bigger and more powerful-looking than Toothless.

Hiccup stared at them. Then at his best friend. "You're a _runt_!" he realized, flabbergasted. Then a smile broke over his face. "Just like me." He reached out to affectionately scratch his dragon behind the head plates.

Toothless threw Hiccup to the ground and crouched over him like a mother dragon protecting a hatchling, so low that Hiccup was pinned. The other dragons roared at him, some pacing in aggressive frustration, and Toothless roared back. Shots were exchanged, prompting Hiccup to drop his face to the ground and cover his head.

When the plasma blasts stopped and Hiccup dared to look up again, he found that they were now surrounded, not just by warriors or scouts, but by what must have been most of the rest of the flock as well. Although most of them were large, there were also some smaller Night Furies closer to Toothless's size, one with a scarred chunk of missing scales on its shoulder. A small hatchling's face curiously peeped over the base of its mother's wing; one giant near the back towered over them all despite its skinny frame.

Black seemed to be the predominant color, but there were others as well: deep violet and midnight blue and forest green, and more; all very dark colors that would allow these dragons to blend in with the shadows. "Wow," Hiccup murmured. Even the threat of imminent death could do little to curb his awe and excitement.

One of the big black ones at the front suddenly rushed them. Toothless shot to intercept him; the others immediately seized the opening. Toothless was fast as lightning, but even he couldn't hold back five Night Furies at once, and Hiccup was suddenly staring up at two gaping mouths, with two shrill warnings whistling in his ears.

His arm shot out, spraying Zippleback gas in their faces. They looked surprised at the unexpected smell, long enough for Toothless to crash into them and force them farther away from his human.

Hiccup knelt there, gasping for breath and thinking that he might have just done something pretty stupid, surrounding himself in a cloud of highly flammable gas. _'No, Night Fury fire is expelled in projectile fashion. If one of them fires at me, I'm dead, whether I'm sitting in this stuff or not.'_

Toothless leaped back in front of him and roared. The warriors had fallen back and were growling at Toothless in response; the rest of the flock was now vocal as well, as if they were all yelling and arguing.

Just as Hiccup was wondering if he'd be able to sneak in a sketch or two, he suddenly realized that a very small Night Fury, so young that it had no jaw frills at all, had approached so stealthily that it was now only two steps away. Toothless, arguing with the rest of the flock, hadn't even noticed it. As soon as Hiccup saw it, the young Night Fury froze and narrowed its eyes, crouching low.

"Hey," Hiccup whispered. "It's okay, little guy."

The dragon glared at him suspiciously, but then its eyes widened when Hiccup slowly began to reach out for it. For a second, it looked fascinated - then it suddenly bared its teeth and glared again in warning. Hiccup instinctively jerked back his hand. They stared at each other for a second. Then the human took a deep breath, turned his face away, and once more stretched out his hand toward the young Night Fury. He waited, holding his breath. Waited...waited...

The touch on his palm was so gentle that it startled him even though he had been desperately hoping for it. Hiccup suppressed a gasp and forced his hand to stay as still as possible. Then he risked a peek and saw the dragon now sniffing curiously at his fingers.

Hiccup suddenly became aware of an utter silence around them. He looked up and saw the eyes of every single Night Fury fixed on him - the flock's eyes wide with shock, Toothless's with disbelief.

"Um...yeah, so-"

Toothless gave a very, very soft growl. The young Night Fury looked at him, and Hiccup automatically lowered his arm. As soon as he was out of danger, Toothless snarled fiercely enough to make the younger dragon yelp and hastily back away.

"Whoa, Toothless, wait!" Hiccup hastily got to his feet and pushed at Toothless's head and chest, trying to get him to back down. "It's okay, bud, he's a friend!" Toothless growled at him in annoyance. "Toothless, come on-"

A change passed over the flock. Hiccup gasped as wing beats sounded just over his head, and three more huge black Night Furies came to an imposing landing. The leader was three times the size of Toothless, and also glowing blue; his pupils were tightly slitted in a murderous expression. Toothless dove to shield his human from a plasma blast, knocking the wind out of him.

Hiccup, crushed under the dragon's protective embrace, fought to regain his breath and then listened nervously to the exchange of enraged roars and howls. Another blast hit, and Hiccup worried for his friend's safety. How many close range shots could a Night Fury take before getting significantly injured?

Toothless suddenly snapped open his wings and shoved Hiccup out in front of him. More roars, then Toothless unexpectedly slopped his tongue up the side of Hiccup's face. Before Hiccup could get enough of his wits together to protest or even exclaim in disgust, Toothless was going on to slobber up the rest of his face and his hair and his palms - the few exposed bits of the human's body. It wasn't Toothless's usual playful licking, either; he seemed almost angry about it. By the time he was done, Hiccup smelled very strongly of Night Fury. _'Was that the point?'_ he wondered in the back of his mind.

The flock's alpha had lowered himself to the ground with his wings spread, his anger now more menacing than aggressive. Toothless, also with spread wings but his head held high, vocalized loudly. The alpha growled in response.

"Toothless-"

Toothless struck the ground with his front paws in frustration, then whirled around and - _shot a plasma blast at Hiccup_.

There was silence in the aftermath. Hiccup, shaking as terrible memories began to replay through his mind, lowered his arms from his head and stared at his best friend in shocked betrayal. "Tooth...less..." This _couldn't_ be happening. It had happened countless times in his nightmares, but he had never thought he would have to truly live through this horror again. "T-Toothless, it's me, please don't-"

Yet Toothless didn't _look_ like he had lost his free will. He sat with his front paws close together and his head lowered apologetically, his eyes very wide and still full of life.

"Toothless...?"

And the blast had missed. It had torn the ground in front of Hiccup's knees and singed his clothes a little, but it hadn't actually struck him, even though there was no way any dragon could have missed at that range, much less a Night Fury. "Toothless, I don't-"

Toothless crept forward and let Hiccup hug him, nosed his face and gave it a small lick. But just when Hiccup felt relieved enough to dismiss the assault as an accident or a weird fluke, Toothless's eyes narrowed again. He gently nudged Hiccup away from him and then growled at him as if they were strangers.

"Toothless, _stop_! It's _me_, your best friend!"

Toothless snarled and pounced, throwing him flat on his back. Hiccup frantically pushed at him to keep those snapping jaws away from his face, but his efforts were laughable against the dragon's unquestionably superior strength. It didn't even occur to him that he was armed until Toothless paused to glance at his knife. Hiccup instinctively drew it, not registering the alarmed hisses of the other Night Furies. Then he froze, the small weapon clenched in his fist, staring at Toothless, who growled softly and waited.

_'...What am I supposed to do, stab my best friend with this?'_ The thought sickened him, so he threw the knife away, his eyes closing for a minute in despair. His body went limp as he realized that his dearest companion was about to kill him and he couldn't even _try_ to defend himself. He opened his eyes again and begged, "Why are you doing this?" Toothless simply looked at the Dragon Blade at his thigh. Hiccup did not hesitate to throw that away, too.

As he did so, he could not take his eyes away from his friend's, trying helplessly to understand why Toothless was hurting him like this while still in his right mind. _'...But _has_ he hurt me?'_ Not really. Not yet, at any rate. Threatening behavior and ungentle handling; that's all it had been so far. If Toothless had wanted to kill him, he could have easily done so already. Did the dragon have some other purpose in mind?

Hiccup drew in a deep breath and braced his palms against the ground so he could sit up. Countless times he had expected Toothless to trust him; how many times had Toothless had no idea what was really happening, yet had obeyed or submitted to him without hesitation? _'How can I still call myself your friend if I'm not willing to do the same when you need me to?'_ Hiccup took his dragon's face in his hands and gazed into his eyes as he whispered, "I trust you, bud."

Toothless crooned softly as he nuzzled Hiccup for a moment, and Hiccup returned the affection. Then, back to business, Toothless seized Hiccup's shoulder in his mouth and shook him, not hard enough to injure him, but certainly enough to be uncomfortable and alarming. Hiccup, wincing, squirmed half-heartedly to get away; Toothless released him so that he could nip at the clasps on his outfit. Warily, Hiccup took the cue and removed his leather armor, dropping it on the ground so that he was left in just his basic clothing, utterly defenseless. Then a blow that sent him reeling; and before he could recover, the telltale whine of a Night Fury's fire.

This time, Hiccup didn't cringe, though for some reason his hand flew up to press against his own heart. He did have to close his eyes against the brightness of the Night Fury's attack, but he didn't move as one and then two plasma blasts scorched the earth uncomfortably close to where he knelt. "I trust you," he muttered under his breath to reassure himself, "I trust you, I trust you..."

He finally remembered that they had an audience. The entire flock seemed perturbed - they were shifting restlessly, their uncertain eyes darting between him and their alpha. The alpha alone remained sitting as still as stone, watching the display through cold, narrowed eyes.

Hiccup's attention snapped back as Toothless approached. The dragon set a paw on his chest and pushed Hiccup to the ground again. The paw moved to press against his stomach; the dragon's head lowered, forcing Hiccup to lift his chin and expose his throat. There was a soft sound of teeth sliding into place. "Toothless please don't kill me," Hiccup murmured as the jaws closed gently around his neck. He dug his fingers into the dirt in an effort to keep his hands still.

Flat on his back with deadly claws poised to tear out his intestines and dragon's teeth set to rip out his throat, Hiccup was completely at the Night Fury's mercy. At this angle, he had an upside-down view of the flock's alpha, who watched with the same stubbornly unimpressed expression as before, though the other Furies were animated with nervous anticipation. The moment held.

Then Toothless let him go and _roared_ furiously at the alpha, glowing fiercely again.

The alpha growled. Then he stood up, gave one last snarl, and flew away, accompanied by a few others.

The rest of the flock seemed to explode with excited screeching, barking, and wing flapping. Toothless whirled and flung himself at Hiccup, who couldn't help flinching, but when his friend simply started showering him with anxious nuzzling and croons and dragon-kisses, Hiccup laughed shakily and hugged him, accepting his apologies. "Let's...let's not do that again, okay, bud? That was kind of scary..." When Toothless finished stroking the whole length of his back against Hiccup's and circled back around, Hiccup put his arms around his neck again and rubbed his cheek against the dragon's. "Scary~ So scary~" It came out in a playful sing-song, and Toothless vocalized melodically in response.

Until he got shoved aside. A large, very dark green Night Fury pushed its face into Hiccup's chest and then stared straight into his eyes, its face only two finger's-breadth away from his, with its tongue lolling out of its mouth in a friendly way.

"Uhh-" Then Hiccup grunted in surprise as another Night Fury knocked him in the back, forcing him to somewhat painfully head-butt the Night Fury still in front of him. The startled green Fury leaped away, and Hiccup yelped as the one behind him licked the side of his neck. Then the very young Fury from earlier came bouncing up and eagerly shoved its head into Hiccup's palm. Hiccup had only just started to instinctively curl his fingers into a scratching movement when several older Furies roared at the little one, prompting it to hiss at them and back away.

Toothless, looking outraged, gave a loud bellow. The other dragons paused. Toothless snapped at the closest ones so that they jerked away from Hiccup, then he seized his human's arm in his toothless mouth and started dragging him away.

"Wait, Toothless, wait, hold on...!"

He struggled to get free until Toothless finally stopped and growled his _"Why are you always so _difficult_?"_ growl at him.

"Toothless, what are you doing?! They're NIGHT FURIES! _Night Furiiiieeesss!_"

Toothless gave him an unimpressed look.

"Come on, Toothless, this is your family, isn't it?! Or something? We can't just _leave_!"

The other dragons had started to approach again. Toothless planted himself in front of Hiccup and snarled to warn them off.

"Toothless," Hiccup said in exasperation. He caressed the dragon's head roughly and held his face close. "Buddy~" he said in a cajoling tone, "it's _fine_ now, okay? I'll be fine. Let's say hi to everyone and see if we can figure out if you belong here or not, you know?"

Toothless gave him a very displeased look, but did not protest too much when Hiccup stepped toward the flock, greeting them as he retrieved his weapons and armor. The friendly green Fury came to rub its head against Hiccup's side, and the bold young Fury closed its toothless mouth around Hiccup's entire hand, then nosed at his fingers.

"Eeeaauughh, dragon drool...you guys are so gross..."

After a few minutes of being examined by the extremely curious remaining Night Furies (the rest were wandering off in the direction their alpha had gone), Hiccup disengaged himself from the dragons investigating his hair, prosthetic, and Dragon Blade, and went to go look for a suitable stick. "Look, guys, I wanna show you something."

The dragons watched in utter fascination as Hiccup began sketching a picture of Toothless in the dirt. (Toothless himself was sulking on a boulder nearby.) Soon after he had finished the eyes, one of the Furies gave a cry of delight and went to tear off a tree branch. Hiccup, smiling widely, retreated to sit with Toothless (who possessively wrapped a wing around him, which Hiccup had to nudge aside in order to see better), as three or four of the other dragons worked on their own pictures. "So Night Furies _are_ artistic as a breed trait, it's not just you," Hiccup murmured, affectionately scratching one of the 'sweet spots' on Toothless's head and then getting out his notebook. "Soooo cool..."

Inevitably, the Night Furies ran out of room, and their drawings started overlapping with each other. They would growl and snarl at each other every time their own lines were intersected by anyone else's, and soon their 'pencils' lay abandoned as they got caught up in what looked like a free-for-all between four or five angry dragons. Only the youngest one stayed out of it, slyly taking the opportunity to scuff away the others' lines so that it could continue with its own masterpiece.

"Whoa, hey, guys, wait! It's okay, it's just- Come on, we'll find another- And _you_! Stop laughing!"

Toothless just chortled again, his eyes gleaming with amusement.

The Night Furies finally tired themselves out and wandered off sulkily. Three of them curled up under bushes or behind boulders; another two or three of them flew away. The green one climbed up to the Berkians' boulder and happily cuddled close to Hiccup, chewing on a pinecone as if it was a toy, and pretending not to notice Toothless's outrage. The youngest Night Fury flew up to join them and curled up with its head in Hiccup's lap. Hiccup had to lean back against his own dragon's chest and reach up to scratch hard at his sweet spots just to get Toothless to shut up.

As he did so, he was thinking. "It's still the middle of the afternoon...are you guys nocturnal?" Of course they were; they were _Night Furies_. Their dark coloring and what the Vikings had known about Fury behavior before the end of the war made it suddenly obvious that these dragons were designed to be more active in darkness. "Did us showing up freak you all out and drag you out of bed in the middle of the 'night'?" Hiccup tilted his head back to stare up at Toothless in dismay. "Living with me has _completely and totally_ messed up your sleeping patterns, hasn't it!"

Toothless made a curious whuffing sound, as if he didn't understand the words and wouldn't have cared even if he had.

"Ohhh, Toothless, I'm so sorry..."

Trapped under a pile of Night Furies, Hiccup eventually drifted off to sleep until twilight. When he opened his eyes again, the Furies were stirring, yawning, stretching, getting to their feet, and padding out of their nests. They spread their wings, and some of them looked at Toothless curiously. The young Fury sniffed at his prosthetic tail fin. Toothless vocalized smugly at them.

Overhead, many wing beats sounded. Hiccup squinted up at the darkening sky to see what looked like the whole Night Fury flock flying overhead. His companions took to the air and circled, calling out curiously to Toothless; only the youngest remained at Hiccup's side, looking back and forth between him and his partner with great interest.

Toothless barked at Hiccup and spread his wings, grinning his toothless grin.

Hiccup grinned back, almost not noticing that the young Night Fury at his side had started to copy the gesture. "You wanna show them how the alphas of Berk fly, bud?" He hopped onto Toothless's back, slipped his feet into the stirrups, and spread the prosthetic fin. More Night Furies were circling them now, vocalizing loudly as they watched in confusion and interest.

"Let's go, bud!" Then they were off, joining the flock, surrounded by Night Furies who swarmed around them in excitement. "Up, Toothless!"

Hiccup and Toothless _did_ sometimes play in the dark. Being deprived of his sense of sight added another dimension of thrill to the experience for Hiccup. But this was the first time they'd played in the sky, at night, _with a whole flock of other dragons playing alongside them_, and Hiccup thought for the millionth time that being a dragon rider was TOTALLY AMAZING and he wouldn't trade it for the world.

They swooped and dipped, corkscrewed, looped. They climbed. They climbed until the other dragons started calling out to them, and then they climbed some more.

Then they fell.

Hiccup grinned as he sensed Furies swarming madly around them, screeching; without having to look, he unhooked himself from the saddle and carefully let himself drift away from Toothless. He grinned at his dragon, and knew that Toothless was grinning back. He felt Toothless poke him in the shoulder, and carefully allowed himself to spin vertically while still maintaining control of his fall.

At last Toothless gave the signal that he'd had enough; a little earlier than usual, but it _was_ a bit disconcerting to have a frantic audience for this. Hiccup reached out and they reconnected. In one smooth motion, he was back in the saddle, the tail extended, and they gracefully returned to level flight.

The flock's response was deafening.

Hiccup laughed, then yelled in surprise when something struck him. From the smell of Fury drool and the way his hand came away from his cheek wet and slimy, he figured that one of the dragons had licked him as it had flown by. Which was rather impressive, considering that it hadn't nicked him with its wings or knocked him off of Toothless in the process. "Yeah, _that's_ right. That's how we fly on Berk." Toothless barked as if to reinforce the sentiment.

Eventually, Hiccup was reluctantly forced to acknowledge that he'd been away from his village for far too long, and that he was going to get a severe tongue-lashing - from several people - when he made it home. "We'd better start heading back, bud..." They'd been gone far longer than he'd planned, though in light of their discovery, he didn't regret it at all; he'd gladly sit through a hailstorm of scolding. He just had to hope that no true emergencies had cropped up during his absence.

Hiccup reluctantly broke away from the flock and angled Toothless's nose for Berk. "Bye, guys. We'll be back." He smiled as a few of the dragons he'd befriended arced away from the others and came gliding after Toothless, staring in confusion. Eventually, however, they fell back one by one until only the green one and the youngest one were left. Hiccup decided to call them Pinecone, after the green dragon's bedtime snack, and Slyfoot, for the young dragon's apparent gift of sneaking around behind its elders' backs.

It was a long flight, and it had been a long time since Hiccup had eaten anything. He kept dozing off in the saddle until he finally sighed, lay back, and closed his eyes for real, 'listening' to the dragon's movements so that he could control the left tail fin in his half-sleep. When he fell too deeply asleep and his foot started fouling their flight rather than maintaining it, he was awakened by both the jarring movements and by an irritated Toothless. Hiccup started to lock the dragon's tail for a sustained glide - then realized that Pinecone was _still with them_.

"Whoa...you _do_ realize that we're going a looooong way away? Somewhere with a whole bunch of people?" Hiccup looked around. Although he couldn't see anything in the darkness, he realized that there was a distressed sound coming from behind and below him. It sounded almost like crying. "Toothless? Hold on, bud, let's check that out."

Slyfoot had not left them, either. Hiccup's mouth dropped open in horror when he realized that the small young dragon was still on their trail but was losing strength, falling farther and farther behind. There was nothing but ocean below; if he couldn't rest soon, he'd fall into the water and drown. "Slyfoot! Quick, Toothless! We gotta find somewhere to land!"

They managed to come across a small island before it was too late. As soon as Slyfoot's paws hit the ground, he staggered forward a few steps and then collapsed, immediately falling into such a deep sleep that Hiccup worried for a second that he was dead. He made the young dragon as comfortable as he could and then settled down against Toothless. "Might as well get some real sleep myself...we are going to be in _so much trouble_ when we get home..."

o.o.o.o.o

In the morning, it was Slyfoot who pranced energetically around Hiccup and Pinecone who looked sluggish, having presumably spent the rest of the night exploring as the others slept. Yet he gamely rose into the air with them and kept decent pace.

"Seriously, guys, we're going all the way home to Berk. Are you _sure_ you want to come with us?"

Slyfoot tucked his head and gave Hiccup an upside-down toothless grin.

Later, when they finally approached the island, they were first spotted by patrols. The two wild Night Furies stared at the dragon riders, and when Barf and Belch drew close, the younger Fury hissed and fell back on the other side of Toothless.

"You are in _so much trouble_," Ruffnut cackled.

"Astrid's totally gonna punch you in the face," Tuffnut said in satisfaction.

"Because I missed an emergency," Hiccup asked apprehensively, "or just because I'm late getting back?"

"Well~ If you consider half the village burning down to be an 'emergency'..."

"Half the village burned down?!"

"Heh, just messin' with ya."

"_Tuffnut_."

Ruffnut was staring. "Are those...?"

Hiccup couldn't help grinning widely. "Night Furies? Yep. There's a whole _flock_ of them out there, these are just the two who decided to follow us home."

"Cooooool!"

"Awesome! I get the big green one!"

"_I_ want the green one! You can have the runt!"

"No! Greenie's mine, I claimed him first!"

Hiccup rolled his eyes and nudged Toothless to accelerate, leaving the twins behind to bicker.

A crowd had already gathered to greet him, which he'd been afraid of, but it was rather difficult for a Night Fury carrying the missing chief of Berk to escape detection during the daytime. Hiccup saw Astrid waiting for him with her arms crossed, and could well imagine the grim look on her face. His mother, coming up beside her, didn't have the most welcoming stance, either.

"Hiccup!"

The villagers were already shouting at him in excitement before he'd even landed.

"Chief!"

"You'll never believe-"

"I've been waiting for two days-!"

"Please look at-!"

"Hiccup! _Hiccup_!"

Their attention started to shift when they realized the breed of Hiccup's dragon companions. Some of them stared in astonishment at Slyfoot, who alighted on a rooftop and hissed at them; the rest of their eyes were fixed on Pinecone, who, immediately after landing, squirmed uneasily between Hiccup and Toothless as Hiccup was dismounting.

Valka's stern expression dissolved almost before Hiccup even had a chance to see it. "Are they-?!"

"Night Furies!" Hiccup said pleadingly, answering her question but mostly addressing Astrid. He waved his arms. "Night Furiiiiiiiieeeeesssss!"

Pinecone stood with his head down, feet apart, and wings spread as he found himself surrounded by humans. His eyes were wide with wary curiosity, but flicked nervously around at the excited villagers reaching out to touch him.

"Don't," Valka ordered. "Back away, please. Don't frighten him."

Above, curious dragons were coming to investigate Slyfoot. When they ignored his warning growls, he leaped to a second rooftop, then back to the ground to hide behind Toothless. Toothless snickered at his distress and ambled off to find a snack.

Astrid had launched into her tirade. "Uuuuggghhh, _Hiccup_! Wild dragons breaking into the storage sheds, a skirmish with Berserks on Changewing Island, Gobber drowning in orders, Gustav nearly violating our treaty with the Bogs...!"

"I know, I know! I'll take care of everything, right away, but, just, _Night Furies_!"

Astrid sighed, and, to his relief, was smiling just a little as she punched him in the arm (hard) and then kissed him (briefly). "I get it, Dragon Boy. Just...some _balance_, you know? It wouldn't be so bad if this wasn't the _third time_ you've done this in the past month..."

"I know. I'm really sorry." Hiccup took her hands and smiled at her. "I'll get better," he said softly. She smiled back and gave him a longer kiss.

Valka was crouched before Pinecone, murmuring to him soothingly. The villagers had backed up a couple steps, but were still eagerly watching the Furies and jostling each other in order to see better. Slyfoot hissed fiercely and then opened his mouth wide in preparation for a plasma blast.

"Whoa, whoa! Slyfoot, don't, it's okay!" Hiccup hurried back to the dragons, shooing aside villagers as best he could. "Hey, hey, back up, guys, come on, they're _wild Night Furies_, this could end really badly..." He dropped to his knees beside Slyfoot and set a hand on his nose, giving him a pleading look. Slyfoot swallowed his fire and stared at him, as if astonished that Hiccup would prevent him from defending himself.

"I want the green one!" someone in the crowd called enthusiastically.

"No! Me! I'll give two chickens and a goat for it!"

The 'green one' in question slunk behind Hiccup as if to hide his bulk behind Hiccup's slim frame.

"It's okay, Pinecone, I won't let anything happen to you," Hiccup said soothingly, patting the Night Fury's face. Pinecone slumped to lean against Hiccup's back ("Oof!"), dropping his head on Hiccup's shoulder and still staring around with very wide eyes.

A bidding war had already started.

"Five sheep and my two best swords!"

"_Ten_ sheep and my grandpa's finest spear!"

"They're _not available_," Hiccup said in exasperation. "I don't even know if they're going to stick around here or go back to their own flock soon!" Ignored as usual, he rolled his eyes and then gave Astrid a grateful look as she and Stormfly started aggressively forcing people to back away and give the newcomers more space.

Slyfoot, now that the humans had retreated somewhat, tentatively sniffed at Valka's open palm and then purred just a little. A few seconds later, Valka was exclaiming in delight over his wingspan and teeth and scales, as he wriggled happily on his back and let her stroke his belly. Pinecone woofed happily and leaned over to nuzzle the woman's cheek.

Valka looked at her son with shining eyes. "They're _magnificent_!"

"There's more, Mom," Hiccup said eagerly. "I found their flock by accident! You should have seen it, they _draw dragon-pictures_, just like Toothless, and their alpha is _huge_, I had _no idea_ Night Furies could get that big-!" He heard Astrid loudly clearing her throat. "Er...I can tell you the rest during dinner..."

"All right." Valka's smile was rapturous as Slyfoot affectionately rubbed his head against her and Pinecone licked her cheek.

Hiccup gave them one last smile, then got to his feet and headed toward the forge. Astrid, with a wry smile, slapped a handful of documents against his chest as he passed her. Toothless came bounding up to stalk beside him, growl over his shoulder at the other Furies, and extend a wing across Hiccup's back in a possessive gesture as if to shield him from their view. "I feel like I'm being pulled in a hundred directions at once, I _knew_ I wasn't cut out for this whole chief thing..."

o.o.o

Author's Notes: Got the idea for this random fic when I realized how many times Hiccup yells at people about Toothless, "He's not dangerous! / He won't hurt you! / Let me show you! / etc." (most people never give him a chance to demonstrate X'D). I thought a role reversal would be interesting.

Eventually gonna write a version from Toothless's perspective because I could pretty much hear all the dragons' dialogue throughout this whole thing, even though it was third person POV and Hiccup can't understand their language yet. *facepalm* I don't intend for this to be a series, though.

Like pretty much all my Fan Characters, Slyfoot & Pinecone formed themselves due to the story's needs; I had to name them when they started developing personalities and grabbing more screentime than I'd planned. ^^; They might show up in my other fics whenever I need Night Fury extras. I do have other Night Fury scenes in mind, but they're for other series such as _Two Worlds, One Family_.


	2. Toothless's perspective

He's Not Dangerous [Toothless version]

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Toothless has to convince a flock of Night Furies not to kill Hiccup on sight. (This version is from Toothless's POV.)

**A/N: I hope you guys' expectations weren't too high, because this didn't turn out as well as I thought. :/** (And it was harder to write than I expected; I kept getting stuck on certain lines and paragraphs, trying to find the right way to word them. X'D)

o.o.o

MY PRECIOUS THING IS IN DANGER.

It happens so often that I don't even need to hear Him scream or smell His fear anymore; now I just _know_.

I rush as fast as I can toward where the roaring is coming from. A Nightwing? A _Nightwing_? I haven't seen one in so so so long, I thought-

Half Of Me loves Nightwings. He looks for us and draws pictures of us all the time. I just _know_ that He found this Nightwing who's not me and went up to her and tried to love her and now she's going to kill Him but that won't happen because I'M GOING TO KILL HER FIRST.

_"Enemy!"_ she's screaming, _"Enemy!"_

_"NOT AN ENEMY!"_ I scream back, but I don't know if she can hear me, and I don't know if she'll listen to me even if she does hear me. We hate humans so so so much, they've hurt us so bad that we won't tolerate them anymore.

...They. Not we. _I_ don't hate humans anymore.

...Am I not a Nightwing anymore?

I hear her fire. I hear His voice, how sad He is that He's about to die even though there is love in His heart instead of hate. I don't care whether I'm a Nightwing or not, all that matters is _I have to stop her_.

I think it hurts, it always hurts when I protect Him from attacks but I'm not sure because I always forget. I'm always so scared of losing Him that I barely feel it.

_"What are you DOING?!"_ she screams at me.

_"BACK OFF! NO MORE FIRE!"_

_"That's a HUMAN!"_

_"He is MY human!"_

_"What?! What?!"_

I can hear Hiccup's heartbeat. I can hear him moving. I can still smell His emotions. He is alive. I am so so so so so glad He's alive. _"YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO HURT HIM!"_ Hiccup smells happy. _Why_ is He happy? So many times He is frightened when there's nothing to be afraid of, and also He isn't afraid when He should be. I don't understand how someone can be so smart and so stupid at the same time.

Of course she can see that I am an alpha, but because I'm not _her_ alpha and she is so frightened and confused, she doesn't even try to do any obeisance. _"Are you crazy?! You are crazy!"_ She calls out to her troop about the enemy human and the insane foreign alpha Nightwing she has found (except I'm not insane, she only thinks I am). I have to get Hiccup away from here before the rest of her troop comes and kills Him.

_"Precious! Hurry hurry hurry, we have to fly away _now_!"_

He is only confused. STOP BEING STUPID, Hiccup! We have to _leave_!

It's too late. The troop is here, five of them altogether, suddenly I think that they are going to overpower me and I will die, and then they will kill my human, and then we will go into the Sun together. Maybe that isn't so bad. As long as I can keep my other half with me, it will be all right. But I still have to _try_ to keep Him alive if I can.

Hiccup is surprised to see the rest of the troop - and then He is _happy again_. My human is the best human ever, but he has NO SURVIVAL INSTINCT, if I don't keep protecting Him then he would be dead dead _dead_ a long time ago.

_"MOVE ASIDE, STRANGER!"_

_"NO!"_

They are shocked._ "That is a human! We must kill it!"_

_"I WON'T LET YOU KILL HIM! I'LL KILL _YOU_ INSTEAD!"_

_"See?"_ says the female, _"He is crazy."_

_"Then he will die, too."_

_"But he is an alpha-!"_

_"Not ours! A foreigner! Even if we don't kill him, Alpha will to protect us!"_

I don't want to challenge another alpha or take another flock, but I WILL if it means Hiccup will stay alive.

The troop shoots at us, so I shoot back. Hiccup is safe where my scales can protect Him, and _finally_ He is a little afraid. Only a little bit, stupid human, but at least He knows that His soft flesh will burn and that He must be frightened of fire.

We are so noisy that we wake up the rest of the flock, and they came flying to us. They hear that the guardian troop is taking too long to fight, so they think they need help.

_"Go back to sleep!"_ I yell at them. _"There's no danger here! Only stupid dragons who won't listen!"_

One of the troop charges at me. I have to stop him from reaching my Precious Thing, but the others slipped behind me no no _no_, Hiccup-!

He isn't _all_ stupid. It's very strange because sometimes He's stupider than a hatchling but other times He's smarter than even an elder. He surprises them with the two-head gas, and they can't understand why they see no two-head even though it smells like there is one standing right here. I'm so relieved to be able to knock them away from my human before they can hurt Him.

_"Stay away from my human! Stay AWAY!"_

They are so confused.

_"Why?!"_

_"It's a _human_!"_

_"Why are you protecting it?!"_

I try to explain. _"He is a SPECIAL human! He is a _good_ human! He is a _person_! He is my other half!"_

This makes them scream. Now _all_ of them think I'm crazy, and I want to hit my head against something because I am so frustrated. Why won't they believe me?! Why can't they see that Hiccup is different?! _"Can't you SMELL Him?! He has no hate, NONE! He loves dragons!"_

_"No!"_

_"Impossible!"_

_"Why are you talking about it like that?!"_

They see and hear that I call Hiccup a person and that He is my most precious and special thing that I love. But they can't understand it because they think every single human is a not-person and an enemy and a terrible disgusting thing to be burned, even my Hiccup. They can't understand it, so they all call me crazy and nothing I say or do can ever, ever change their minds. How, _how_ can I protect Hiccup when I can't make them understand?

_"What is he doing?!"_

_"Orphan, get away from it!"_

_"He is as crazy as Insane Foreigner."_

What are they talking about?

But now I can smell it, a Nightwing _way too close_, and Hiccup _way too happy_, so I look and

HICCUP IS TOUCHING A NIGHTWING. Right behind me. I didn't even notice. It sneaked up and Hiccup loved it instead of being afraid and now Hiccup's tiny weak paw is _right next to the Nightwing's teeth_, right there ready to get burned or bitten off. HICCUP WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID?

I have to be gentle so the hatchling won't get startled and hurt Hiccup. _"Don't. Touch. My. Precious. Thing."_

The hatchling looks at me. _"What?"_

Hiccup's paw is not on its face anymore. He is safe. _"GET AWAY FROM MY HUMAN!"_

_"Eep-! HEY! Don't yell at me! Your human called for _me_!"_

Now Hiccup is pushing me away, _protecting the hatchling_, why are You so stupid why are You so stupid _why are You so stupid_?! Your love for strangers is a nice thing, but NOT WHEN YOU KEEP LETTING IT ALMOST KILL YOU!

Too late. Their alpha has sensed the trouble and now he's coming, he has death in his eyes and I think I will probably have to fight him and kill him. He shoots at Hiccup before I can even try to talk to him.

_"Stop shooting!"_

_"WHO ARE YOU. I'LL KILL YOU BEFORE I LET YOU TAKE MY FLOCK."_

_"I don't want your stupid flock! All I want is for you to stop trying to kill my Precious Thing and let us fly away safe!"_

He glares at me because he can't figure out what my Precious Thing is. He won't believe that it's the human.

_"They're people. They really are. They can throw away the hate if they try, and then-"_

_"STEP ASIDE."_

_"NO."_

_"THERE IS A HUMAN THERE."_

_"I _know_! He's mine!"_

_"...You're going to _eat_ it?"_

Stupid alpha. He looks so disgusted; he can't even imagine any other reason why I would want a human.

_"THE HUMAN IS MY PRECIOUS THING."_

_"...You are insane. You must be destroyed."_ He shoots again, this time straight at me.

_"I AM NOT INSANE."_ They don't have to believe me about all the humans. Even if they only believe me about Hiccup, then they'll let us go and He will be safe. _"This human is not a monster! He feels love!"_

_"That is not possible."_

_"Yes it IS! I can show you!"_

_"Humans are monsters. Every single one of them."_

_"This one is not. I _promise_ you, this one is not. Let me show you."_

_"Humans cannot feel or think, they don't know how to do anything except kill and destroy."_

_"That is NOT TRUE!"_ I show him Hiccup. Finally I'm glad that stupid Hiccup is not frightened like He should be, because He smells like a person instead of a monster, and they can all tell. _"See?!"_

They all lean forward, scenting Him. The alpha says nothing, but I hear the flock trying to make sense of it.

_"It is a small human..."_

_"Where are its blades? Why isn't it yelling?"_

_"I don't smell any bloodlust."_

_"Why isn't it angry?"_

_"I didn't know they could be curious!"_

_"Why isn't it attacking you, Foreigner?"_

Stupid dragons. Hiccup would never hurt me. He couldn't hurt me even if He tried. _"He is my other half, of COURSE He's not attacking me."_

_"How can a _human_ be your other half?!"_

_"That makes no sense!"_

_"It's not a dragon! It can't be your other half!"_

_"How can anyone possibly look at that thing and see _you_?!"_

They are making me angry angry angry, so I put my scent on Hiccup, all of Him I can reach, until He smells more dragon than human.

_"Yuck!"_

_"How can you _tolerate_ that?!"_

_"He's not _food_, stupid."_ Of course humans are still bad to eat, but they don't taste bad when you're just trying to talk to them. _"Let us FLY. Then you'll see. When we fly, we are one, not two."_

_"Humans can't fly! _You're_ the stupid one!"_

_"Enough."_ The alpha still has not changed his mind. Hiccup isn't doing anything threatening at _all_, but the horrible alpha still wants to kill Him. _"Maybe the human has twisted your mind, or maybe you really are just insane. It doesn't matter, because all humans are a threat and I will eliminate this one. I don't care whether you get in the way or not, Foreigner."_

_"There is NO REASON to kill Him! He _won't hurt you_ or any of your flock, He never hurts _anybody_! Everybody else are the ones always trying to hurt HIM!"_ Why won't they believe me?! _"Even if you attacked Him, He _still_ wouldn't hurt you! He's not dangerous!"_

I have to show them. They won't believe me unless I show them. So I shoot at Hiccup, and I'm careful to miss Him, but of course any monster human would still get frightened and angry and try to fight back or run, so when Hiccup doesn't do those things, they'll see that He's not a monster.

Except I forgot that Hiccup is stupid sometimes and can't understand when dragons talk. I meant to attack Him some more, but I can't when I see Him.

"Tooth...less..."

I didn't hurt His body, but...I accidentally still hurt Him somehow, very much. It makes me feel very bad, and I can't shoot again.

"T-Toothless, it's me, please don't-"

I forgot that Hiccup doesn't fight with His body or with human weapons, He fights with His heart instead. He didn't touch me or throw anything at me, but my chest hurts as much as if He'd pushed a blade through it. ...The other dragons don't know that, though, and I won't tell them, because they have to think that He's helpless and can't hurt anyone.

_"You hurt my heart, you hurt my heart, you hurt my heart,"_ Hiccup is saying, so that I can't attack Him anymore; I have to go comfort Him instead. I comfort Him until His pain is gone and He stops hurting me with it. That's good. Now I can go back to pretending that He is helpless.

"Toothless, _stop_! It's _me_, your best friend!"

Shut up, Hiccup! I pin Him to the ground, and He is frightened and struggles, but of course He is very weak and can't hurt me at all with those silly soft claws of His. He could do better with His human weapons, but of course the flock has to see that He won't use those to hurt anyone, either. _"Half Of Me, get rid of Your blades."_

He grabs His blade, the little one He keeps on His foreleg. But...He holds onto it. I smell how frightened He is, and suddenly I think that maybe He- _Maybe He will try to attack me with it_. To defend Himself. Oh, Hiccup, please don't. Don't You trust that I would never hurt You?!

Finally He does throw the blade away, but He is grieving, so I realize He still doesn't understand. He thinks He has to sacrifice Himself, and it fills me with sad love to see that He would rather die than hurt me. _"You won't die! I'm not asking You to die, I would never ever ask You for that!"_

_"You are hurting my heart, Half Of Me,"_ He says again, even more than before because He's also saying _"I love you so much"_ at the same time, and He is so sad.

_"Please trust me, and You will see."_

He is still grieving as He gets rid of His last weapon. But then...something changes. I don't know how He finally figured it out, but His fear fades away and He's still sad but He tells me _"I love you,"_ and I can sense trust in Him where there wasn't before.

_"I love You, too,"_ I tell Him. I am so relieved that He's not afraid anymore. I didn't think I could keep going when it hurt Him so badly, but now I can provoke Him without worrying, and He's unhappy but He's not too frightened and He's not angry at all. Thank You, Hiccup. I'll show them how special You are.

_"It's _still_ not fighting back!"_

_"Is it...is it really a human...? Maybe it's some kind of strange animal that only looks like a human..."_

_"It's a trick! Humans trick you into thinking you've won and then they get you when you don't expect it!"_

Horrible, annoying dragons. I am going to have to go very far, right to the brink, before they'll believe me. I shoot at Hiccup again, and I am even more careful this time, but He makes it easy for me and barely moves.

_"Why didn't it jump away?!"_

_"Is it going to let you kill it?! Is it really going to just sit there and let you kill it?!"_

_"Of course I'm not going to kill my other half!"_

_"Can it really be your other half?!"_

_"Is it really a person? Can it really be a person...?"_

_"A human would have defended itself by now!"_

Finally. _Finally_. We're so close. _"Half Of Me would rather die than hurt me."_ To prove it, I pin Him down again, and I'm so relieved when He lets me threaten Him and doesn't try to protect His vulnerabilities at all.

Except...with His throat in my mouth and His belly under my claws and a little scent of fear in my nose, I have a sudden urge to rip and tear, which horrifies me. No no _no_, this is _not_ prey! It is my _other half_, it would be VERY VERY BAD to destroy my own Precious Thing! I must be very gentle and careful instead.

_"Look..."_

_"I see it but I can't believe it..."_

_"It's a human. Why won't it _fight_?!"_

The trust Hiccup is giving me right now is the kind that dragons are only able to give to their other halves. It is too great a gift for us to give to anyone else. There can't be anymore doubt about it now that He loves me and I love Him as much as anyone is able to love. If they still won't believe me, then...they never will, and _they're_ the ones who are crazy.

Suddenly I can't stand holding Hiccup like that a second longer. He doesn't deserve to be threatened and hurt and made unhappy. _"There!"_ I scream at the alpha. _"If _that_ didn't make you see, then you are BLIND! Half Of Me would do anything for me, and I would do anything for Him! _He_ is the reason I am alpha, I conquered a great sea king and took its flock so that my human would be safe!"_ They can see in my glow and in my stance that it's true, and surely they understand that I will do it again if it's the only way to protect Hiccup._ "He deserves all my love, and I'm _proud_ to call Him my other half!"_

The alpha is angry. With all his heart he doesn't want to believe me, but even he can't deny what he has seen with his own eyes and heard with his own ears. _"Keep that abomination away from my nest, or I will tear you both to pieces."_ He flies away, and his most loyal dragons follow him.

I am _so relieved_. Precious Thing is safe, and I didn't have to kill any Nightwings or steal another flock to do it.

_"Did you see that?! Did you see that?!"_

_"How amazing! There is a human who is not a monster!"_

_"I want to smell it!"_

_"A sea king?! We can defeat a _sea king_ if we have a human precious thing?!"_

I don't care about them. Now that Hiccup is safe, I have to make Him happy again, I have to tell Him how sorry I am for frightening Him and hurting Him. I'm a little afraid that maybe He will be sad or angry at me for mistreating Him, but He forgives me and tells me He loves me, and I'm so relieved and happy. It doesn't matter that He's a human, Hiccup is still the best other half in the whole entire world.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: ...I kind of want to do yet another version from Slyfoot's perspective. *facepalm* (That one would cover more of the original fic. I sort of lost interest in Toothless's perspective once the HiccTooth parts were over. XD)

I FINALLY got my fanfiction indexes all up to date, yaaaaay!


End file.
